Blue White Illustrated

LAST WORD N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M n Patrick Chambers' eighth year at the helm of Penn State's beleaguered men's basketball program, frustra- tions have hit a boiling point. The Nittany Lions dropped six com- petitive games before New Year's Day, and their fortunes were only made worse when the calendar flipped. They lost their first eight games of 2019, ex- tending a Big Ten skid that began with two conference losses in December. All told, those defeats put Penn State in an insurmountable 0-10 hole. A 59-52 win at Northwestern on Feb. 4 broke the spell, but the damage had al- ready been inflicted. The Lions were 1- 11 in conference play and 8-15 overall at the time of this writing, and voices out- side the program were calling for Chambers to be fired. That would be a mistake. But to judge by the comments Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour offered in late December, it's a mistake that the athletic department probably won't make. "We stepped up our schedule and we've got a young team," Barbour said. "Are there maybe some disappoint- ments in there? Sure. Absolutely." Acknowledging the challenges, which have only grown since she offered her assessment, Barbour didn't equivocate when asked about Chambers' future with the Nittany Lions. "I'm not gener- ally committed," she said. "I'm fully committed to Pat and his leadership of our program." This is a good thing and the best deci- sion moving forward for Penn State men's basketball. Junior forward Lamar Stevens' recent comments, in the middle of what is un- doubtedly the biggest disappointment of his career at any level of basketball, offer insight as to why. For a Penn State team that wanted nothing more than to build on last year's NIT championship and finally deliver the program's first NCAA tournament berth since 2010-11, even without Tony Carr, Shep Garner and Julian Moore, the response has not been detachment. Rather, the Lions have doubled down. "I think you have one of two options," Stevens said. "You're either going to di- vide or really come closer together, and I think this team got closer over this time going through everything that we've been through. And I think Coach has done a great job of keeping everybody motivated, keeping everybody together. When you're winning, everything is just easy. Of course you're going to have fun, you're going to like the people you're with. But when you're losing, a lot of leadership has to step up and keep everybody connected." The reality, of course, is that bailing would have been easier. Penn State has suffered a lot of close losses this season. Some of the Lions' difficulties have been of their own mak- ing, other times they've been on the wrong side of an uncanny circus shot or a badly timed officiating mistake or some combination of the two. Given how agonizing those losses have been, the psychology of human nature has been as much a battle as on-court de- velopment. But even though the Lions haven't gotten the desired results, the on-court developments have been noticeable, particularly among the freshmen and sophomores who were thrust into criti- cal roles this season. Said to have hit a "freshman wall" earlier in the season, Rasir Bolton produced three of his best performances in successive appear- ances against Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State. Bolton averaged 15.7 points per game in that span while knocking down 42.1 percent of his 3- pointers (8 of 19) and 86.7 percent of his free throws (13 of 15). In doing so, he demonstrated that he was ready and able to take on more responsibility. Likewise, sophomore point guard Ja- mari Wheeler turned up his defensive intensity to produce nine steals and 11 rebounds in the same span. What emerged was a team that settled into an identity it might not have ex- pected for itself, but has embraced nonetheless. "I think a month ago we were trying to outscore teams, and that's not who we are. ... That's just not how we're built right now until the freshmen become sophomores, sophomores become jun- iors, juniors become seniors," Chambers said. "We have to grind it out a little bit. … I think right now, we have to defend and rebound and we have to play tough and physical basketball or we're not going to find that winner's circle again." Should Penn State continue to make those improvements, the effort will pay off sooner or later for this group. The Lions are likely to retain the bulk of this season's roster, with only Josh Reaves set to graduate and Mike Watkins poten- tially wrapping up his career after four years at Penn State. Given the abun- dance of returnees next season, the pro- gram would be best suited to see through its investment of time and energy. In the end, Stevens said he expects Penn State to reap the benefits of the hard lessons it has been absorbing lately. He and his teammates "know we can win in the Big Ten," he said. "We knew it before, but we just never had a win. So finally getting the one on the right column definitely feels good, and I think it's definitely a confidence- booster for this team." ■ Staying the course I

• Cover